McKenna Moe Thacker is a Seattle-based social media marketer working in the beauty industry. This site is dedicated to sharing her experiences and thoughts on fashion, dining, beauty, and more.

Why I Decided to Re-Design The Modern Mosaic

Talk to almost any blogger and they'll tell you that their blog is a work in progress. I know bloggers with followings big and small who can quickly tell you the things they want to improve on their site. For me, that moment came during Seattle Style Lab when I realized I was in a room full of young men and women, working to make their brand and website better, while my own blog was still sitting at square one.

Photography by Caitlyn Nikula Photography

Now that the hustle of summer is coming to an end, I've finally taken the time to re-design my blog! While The Modern Mosaic's old template included large images and a general home page, the new design is more blog-centric and mobile friendly. When creating a website it's important to consider its purpose before anything else. Not to say there was anything wrong with my previous design, just that it hindered my readers from getting to what they wanted to see — my content!

It's also important to be mindful of how people will be coming to your site. Thanks to Squarespace's analytics tools, I learned that more than HALF of my readers were coming to my site through their mobile devices. Which isn't surprising because, according to The Wall Street Journal, mobile readers are on the rise. Why are more people reading on their phones than ever before? “The best device to read on is the one you have with you,” said Willem Van Lancker, co-founder and chief product officer of the subscription-book service Oyster.

“It requires no planning. My bookshelf at home isn’t any good to me when I’m at the park.”

— Willem Van Lancker

But don't take a re-design lightly! I took a few weeks to check out blog styles I liked, ones I didn't, and to decide how I wanted to build the future of The Modern Mosaic, before I began the re-design process. Once my goals were clear, I had to go through each of my old posts to update categories, thumbnail images, meta descriptions and other moving pieces. It may not have been easy, but now I have a blog design to match its modern name.